Freshman Congressman Kean’s first bill tackles an issue that frustrates N.J. commuters

By Larry Higgs | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

It’s been 25 years since NJ Transit proclaimed 1998 as the Year of the Raritan Valley Line and ushered in various improvements. But the Holy Grail for commuters remains a one-seat ride in and out of Manhattan during rush hour.

Riders on the Central Jersey commuter line are close, but haven’t reached that elusive goal. NJ Transit started off-peak direct rail service in 2014, resuming it after it was paused to make a December 2018 federal deadline to have a mandatory safety system called positive train control installed and operational. But rush hour commuters traveling to and from Manhattan still must change trains in Newark at Penn Station.

Freshman U.S. Rep.Tom Kean Jr., R-7th Dist., hasn’t forgotten that goal and his first bill as a congressman is to have the U.S. Department of Transportation conduct a national study of commuter lines that lack a one seat train ride to and from major cities. Kean detailed the bill and reasons for it with NJ Advance Media on board an 8:14 a.m. Raritan Valley Line commuter train to Newark on Friday.

The study would look at the Raritan Valley Line specifically and similar rail lines around the county, where commuters have to change trains to get to and from a major city, he said. The study would weigh the pros and cons of those transfers and the impacts.

“We’d be able to lay it out for the first time on a national level what are the inefficiencies and time additions, what does it do to the economy,” Kean said. “Everybody who goes on a train, including the (Raritan Valley Line), knows that a transfer stop adds time and inconvenience. It’s an inefficient way. ”

That inconvenience is measured in lost family time at home and reduced productivity at work, he said. The bill also would study the cost/benefit analysis of providing direct, one-seat-rides on any commuter rail transit system in the nation and the effects of commuters diverting to highways, buses or other transit lines as a work around, he said.

If passed, this would be the first time the one-seat ride-transfer issue was studied on a national level, he said. The American Public Transit Association did not have statistics of how many commuter rail lines require passengers to transfer to access a major city.

NJ Transit has other lines that don’t run directly to and from New York, including the Main, Bergen, Pascack valley and Port Jervis lines, which the agency operated in New York State under contract with Metro North. They terminate in Hoboken.

The bill already has a bipartisan interest from another New Jersey lawmaker: U.S. Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-12th Dist., who has signed on as a co-sponsor, said Mike Shanahan, her spokesman.

This is not Kean’s first time trying to advance the one-seat ride issue. As a member of the state Senate, he was a primary sponsor of legislation that was signed in to law by Gov. Phil Murphy on Jan. 13, 2020, directing NJ Transit to study the Raritan Valley Line’s one-seat ride issue.

The results were disappointing. A study released in July 2020 concluded that it would be best to wait for the $16 billion Gateway Tunnel project to be built, which would provide capacity for Raritan Valley Line trains. Added space would also be required in Penn Station New York by building a station annex, which is a future part of the larger Gateway project.

Interim solutions, such as adding a few direct rush hour Raritan Valley Line trains without the new tunnel, would require cutting existing Northeast Corridor or North Jersey Coast line trains, and were rejected by the study. The conclusions were called disappointing by the Raritan Valley Line Mayor’s Alliance.

The Main, Bergen, Pascack Valley and Port Jervis lines also would depend on another piece of gateway infrastructure, the “Bergen Loop” which would allow those trains to join the Northeast Corridor in Secaucus.

The economic reasons for a one-seat ride have been outlined by the Raritan Valley Line Coalition for two decades, including economic redevelopment of downtowns, adding employment centers and jobs and increasing property values. A 2005 Rutgers University Bloustein School of Public Policy report said the opening of NJ Transit’s Mid-Town Direct service to and from New York in 1996 on the Morris & Essex lines increased real estate value increases in communities having direct access to the service.

Since the 2020 report, more tangible reasons for a one-seat ride are springing up along the Raritan Valley Line — a growing number of new condo and apartment complexes. From Roselle Park to Raritan, clusters of new “transit-oriented development” – designed to be in walking distance of a train station- are built or under construction.

Some of those buildings are mixed use to include office and retail development, giving rise to Kean’s desire to see robust rail service to make reverse commuting by rail an option to driving.

“I want trains going west to be as crowded as the east bounds,” he said, talking about larger goals to bring manufacturing and employers to New Jersey and to downtowns.

Kean is in a good position to get action as a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the Highways and Transit, Aviation and the Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials subcommittees.

In addition to talking to committee and subcommittee leadership about the bill, Kean said he plans to question U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg about the one seat ride issue when he appears before the committee.

Kean’s hope is that other members of Congress “see this bill and recognize instances in their own districts where their constituents are inconvenienced” by the lack of a direct ride.

“It would apply to any place where there is a transfer,” he said.